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Despite great efforts on the part of the College Board to remove bias from the test, the SAT still includes cultural elements that can put Chinese students at a big disadvantage. Nowhere on the exam is this more the case than on the essay, a section that has proved to be an Achilles Heel for many otherwise brilliant Chinese test takers. Because of this, Chinese students need to begin their writing practice at the very beginning. Before you can provide an answer, you must truly understand the question. If, for example, you were given the prompt: Should we constantly seek to challenge authority figures, even those with more expertise than we have? how would you respond? Lets say that you are unclear about the meaning. You cant simply ask the test proctor for a new essay question. You will need to make do somehow. This means that before you even begin practicing your writing structure, thinking of examples, or even going over how to spell words, you need to familiarize yourself with a range of different prompts and understand the types of topics that are most likely to appear. Among other topics covered in this blog, I will help explain how to handle this critical writing challenge and will explain the different types of issues for which you need to ready yourself. First, lets begin with a quick lesson on a key difference in Chinese and American culture. I think it can come down to something as simple as a pair of words. In China, the virtue that sums up the ambitions of the society at large is often defined as harmony. In America, we put far less emphasis on that ideal, though. For us, the word of all words is freedom. | 
